Friday, February 18, 2011

Okay, so this is REALLY reaching counting this as a drawing, but hey, if someone asked "can you draw me a robot?" and I drew this, then it would count. So here it is, Bad Drawing #77!

I did this at Boston Pizza. At BP they have these hearts you can buy for a dollar and then write whatever you want on them. I was eating at BP the night before Valentine's Day and decided to buy one. It's for charity you know...

BTW, I'm "Rutty", "Peanut" is Arlyn's nickname.

I didn't just get her a 1 dollar Boston Pizza heart though, I also got her this monster named Wayne...

Wayne has 4 roses, cuz I gave Ar a rose just before valentines 4 years ago in my attempt to woo her (didn't work... at least not right away) and then added one every Valentines since.This seems a fine idea now, but I can see it backfiring in 20, 30 years...

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Around the beginning of this year, this messaged popped up on a couple of friends Facebook status:

First Five - Let's hear it:Pay it Forward 2011~

I promise to send something handmade to the first 5 people who leave a comment here~ They must in turn post this and send something they make to the first 5 people who comment on their status~

~The rules are that it must be handmade... by you and it must be sent to your 5 people sometime .........in 2011~

Well this just seemed an awesome opportunity to get some free stuff from people who I think make awesome art.

The only problem is, by jumping in and commenting, I'm left having to make 5 people something handmade.

Well I did it anyways, I commented both on Meeka Stuart's and Karen Francis's status, and then reposted the message as my own status.

I'm not entirely sure WHO I have to do stuff for, I have a rough idea. I THINK my list is:

Meeka Stuart

Well she sent me stuff, so it's only fair I send something to her... but what?

Charlene Havelchuk

Charlene wrote this on my status:

I officially comment!

I retract my comment? I realized I can't make anything hand made that's actually cool.

Okay, yeah I guess cookies are home/handmade. Ok you can count me in again. But I warn you, my oven has a hotspot and don't blame me if they're a little too crispy.

So I guess she is in... Not sure I saw her repost the Pay it Forward though...

Geoff Manson (maybe?)

Geoff wrote this on my status:Can it be a print of a personalized digital painting? Last time I made anything with my hands was when I did cross-stitch as a kid, and no one wants THAT.

So I don't know if he is in... I guess?

Karen Francis (maybe? cuz I clicked on hers?)

I'm not sure I have to send her something just cuz I commented on her status...

Anyways, I will figure out something to do for all of them, I suppose, and post it up on here when finished. However, the real point of this post is that my Pay it Forward from Meeka Stuart already arrived!

The Sock Monkey is for me, the little red guy went to Mika, and the gnome was claimed by Arlyn.

The Sock Monkey has a "Rutty" tattoo (which is my sometimes nickname). It is awesome and my first sock monkey.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

I have no idea why, but as I was editing away at work, I suddenly had this need, NEED, to draw an Ewok (even if poorly)

It was when I got to his feet that I realized, once again, that I don't know what to do with feet. Maybe I should start hiding them behind props like comic artist Rob Liefeld was known for...

Speaking of Liefeld, this is an awesome post someone did called "The 40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings" and it's pretty funny. If you were a comic nerd in the 90's, you know his art well. I even had posters on my wall of his work.

He did some really bad drawings, but fuckit, I still like him. He definitely had a style of his own! CLICK HERE!!

Monday, February 7, 2011

So a couple of weeks ago I went to my first ever "Dr. Sketchy's Art School", which is basically life drawing, but the models are posing dressed in a burlesque style (or so I understand).

I've been told every show has a different theme, and this time the Dr. Sketchy's theme was the art of Camilla D'errico. Well, that was reason enough for me to dust off my life drawing skillz and stare at half naked people.

I like Camilla's work. I first saw her art at a comicon 5 or so years ago on Main street in Vancouver. She had a table there where she was selling prints of her work. I saw the young girl sitting behind all the anime style art and asked just about the worst thing you can ask an artist:"Did YOU draw this?". I made up for it though by going to her art show the next night and buying an original piece for $150 bucks.

Her art hasn't changed much in the last 5 years. Generally she does paintings of cute girls wearing something on their head. But it's working for her, still really good, and I'll definitely buy her new book coming out, so good on her.

Anyways, on to the bad drawings!

The models were made up in the style of girls in Camilla's paintings. Photo credits to Ms. Heather Renney!

So this first little set (Bad drawings #63, 64, 65) were one minute poses. How much can one sweat when realizing they are super rusty/shitty at life drawing in a single minute? TONS. SO MUCH. Wow I was sweating.

I believe these next 4 drawings (#66, 67, 68) were 5 minute poses. I could be wrong though, I didn't write it down. Looks like 10 minutes worth of sketching to me. I'd be super sad if I found out they were 30 minute poses.

Just before the break, there was a prize round. To win the prize round, you had to somehow incorporate robots into your sketch. Check it out! Was bad drawing #70 the winner?!?!

Nope, I lost. But let me state it now. I WILL WIN A PRIZE ROUND AT DR. SKETCHY'S! THIS I COMMAND! (...or predict. Whatever.)

Oh, and a side note, not related to drawing (at all) - Right after the break was this super weird burlesque show where one of the girls awkwardly danced and then made sparks with a disk sander and a piece of metal.

I'm still not sure what I was watching.

BACK TO DRAWINGS! I believe this was a ten minute pose. Bad Drawing #71

Holding a skull! (#72)

From behind! And the last drawing of the night! (#73)

As I looked at my drawings at the end of the night, I thought to myself "well, not great, not terrible... sort of adequate?". And then I walked by Camilla's sketchbook...

Yikes. Glad I wasn't sitting beside her.

On the way out Ar got a postcard for Mika and had Camilla sign it.

So that ended my first life drawing since 1994. Wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. I definitely need to do it more often.

Friday, February 4, 2011

When I first started "A Million Bad Drawings", it was out of frustration that no one wanted to make a comic with me. I loved the idea of writing a story, and then having one of my talented friends draw it out. We would self publish, then watch as the millions of dollars and offers from Hollywood immediately rolled in!

Anyways, no one wanted to make a comic with me. I figured then that I would just draw it myself. Yup, I would learn to draw, and do everything myself.

Anyways, I can't draw very well, but I'm really tired of waiting til I CAN draw. So I decided not to wait for the skill to come to me, but to just start DOING a comic, and then as the comic progressed, so would my skill.

This seems like an awesome idea, right?

Could be. Problem is, I have no idea what to make my comic about. The idea kinda rolling around in my head is sort of a "Creation/Evolution" type story. I'm not talking in a religious way, but more in the way of "AND THEN THERE WAS LINE!", with a character being drawn, simply, no backgrounds, and the story sort of erupts from there. We would follow the man as he discovers a world growing more and more complicated around him (design wise as well as story wise) as he himself grows to be more complicated and flushed out (design wise and emotionally).

So I guess I kind of have A idea... Even if it doesn't make much sense saying it.

So yeah, this way I don't have to design the characters ahead of time, they can happen as they happen.

Anyways, that's the plan. Hopefully I can get the first page of this young mans journey up soon.

In the mean time, here is a ridiculously cool vid posted by Ethan Nicolle on his drawing of an "Axe Cop" comic.

A MILLION!?!?! I thought it was ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND!??!?

You're RIGHT! In my search for the famous Chuck Jones quote about bad drawings, I consistently found it quoted as " Everyone has a million bad drawings in them...". It turns out Chuck Jones was quoting his teacher, and his his teacher had told him that everyone has "one hundred thousand" in them...

However, I consider myself a pretty crappy artist, and I probably have more than a hundred thousand bad drawings in me. So this blog is my attempt to get the MILLION bad drawings out of my system and be an AWESOME artist. This may never happen. A million drawings is a lot. But "A Million Bad Drawings" has a better ring to it than "One Hundred Thousand Bad Drawings", right?

I should note that I generally hate everything I draw, and I'm not fishing for compliments. "That's not bad!" does not help me. Critique does! Critique away! Let me know what I'm doing wrong. You won't hurt my feelings. Asshole.